Crimes, iphones and encryption

A U.S. magistrate judge has ordered Apple to help the F.B.I. break into a work-issued iPhone used by one of the two gunmen in the San Bernardino shooting.

Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

Apple is refusing to comply with a federal court order to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who was killed by the police along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, after they orchestrated a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., in December that left 14 people dead.

The move sets up a legal showdown between Apple — which says it does not possess the technology to open the phone and will not create it because it would threaten the privacy of its customers — and the law enforcement authorities, who say that new encryption technologies hamper their ability to prevent and solve crime.

Should companies have to unlock encrypted communication in the case of a crime?